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Higher fruit and vegetable variety associated with lower risk of cognitive impairment in Chinese community-dwelling older men: a 4-year cohort study

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Abstract

Purpose

Few studies have examined the variety in fruit and vegetable (FV) intake with cognitive impairment in older adults. This study examined the associations of variety in fruit, vegetable and combined FV with 4-year incident cognitive impairment in Chinese community-dwelling older adults.

Methods

Data was derived from a cohort study among Chinese community-dwelling older adults aged ≥ 65 years in Hong Kong. At baseline, a validated food frequency questionnaire was used to assess variety in fruit, vegetable and combined FV. Cognitive impairment was defined as a Community Screening Instrument of Dementia score of < 29.5 points and/or Mini-Mental State Examination score of < 27 points. Adjusted multiple logistic regression was performed to examine the associations. Results are presented as odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI).

Results

Of the 1518 participants [median age: 70 years (IQR 68–74), 32.7% women] included at baseline, 300 men and 111 women were newly identified as cognitively impaired at the 4-year follow-up. In men, higher variety in vegetable (adjusted OR: 0.97, 95% CI 0.95–0.99, p = 0.029) and combined FV (adjusted OR: 0.98, 95% CI 0.96–0.98, p = 0.039) were significantly associated with a lower risk of cognitive impairment. Fruit variety was not associated with cognitive impairment. In women, there were no associations between variety in fruit, vegetable and combined FV with cognitive impairment in the adjusted model.

Conclusion

Independent of FV quantity, higher variety in vegetable and combined FV were associated with lower risk of cognitive impairment in Chinese community-dwelling older adults, and these associations were only observed in men.

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Availability of data and material

Data and material described in the manuscript will be available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

Code used in the data analysis will be available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by grants from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and National Institutes of Health R01 grant AR049439-01A1. The funders had no role in study design, collection, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of the report and in the decision to submit the article for publication.

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Authors

Contributions

Study conception and design were contributed by TK and JW. Data collection was performed by TK and JW. Data analysis was carried out by SSYY. The first draft of the manuscript was written by SSYY. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Suey S. Y. Yeung.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval

The study was conducted in compliance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. The study protocol was approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (No. CRE 2003.102).

Consent to participate

Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Not applicable.

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Yeung, S.S.Y., Kwok, T. & Woo, J. Higher fruit and vegetable variety associated with lower risk of cognitive impairment in Chinese community-dwelling older men: a 4-year cohort study. Eur J Nutr 61, 1791–1799 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-021-02774-y

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